If you’ve read much of my ramblings over the last six years or so, you know I’ve often returned to the theme that most of our elected officials are hardworking and are dedicated to doing the right thing, though we can differ on what we think the right thing is. Certainly (and dramatically) there are exceptions for people like Colorado’s own national embarrassment, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who recently demonstrated her lack of intellect by confusing the words “wanton” and “wonton” while trying to quote a Bible verse in church. She referred to “wonton killing” when citing Romans 1:29, which literally means killing of Chinese dumplings. She was going for “wanton killing” but missed the mark. That is in line with another of our elected buffoons, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia who confused “gazpacho” with “Gestapo,” inadvertently implying there is a police organization that presumably watches for violations in the manner in which people eat soup.

But the majority of our electeds are hardworking, as is demonstrated in a recent Colorado Politics story detailing the no less than 15 bills Gov. Jared Polis signed into law as the legislative session rapidly approaches its final days. And as lots of these new laws escape public notice, I’ll offer a couple of thoughts on a few of the new laws Coloradans will face in the coming months.

Stay up to speed: Sign-up for daily opinion in your inbox Monday-Friday

In its story, CoPo noted with roughly three weeks remaining in the session the pace of legislative work has increased quite a bit. Polis signed several bills centered around protecting reproductive health options here in Colorado, a wise and appropriate move given the outrageous governmental overreach and judicial activism we are seeing from governors, state legislatures and courts on the far right. Colorado will be, hopefully for a relatively short time, an island of freedom in an otherwise repressive area of the country when it comes to the right to choose. I think Bill Clinton said it perfectly back in 1992: abortion should be safe, legal and rare. These new laws are consistent with that point of view.

One bill that will now become law addresses an ongoing pet peeve of mine. No doubt you’ve seen storefronts that purport to be a reproductive health facility, but which are actually anti-choice fake “businesses” set up to try to talk women out of abortions. They don’t, in fact, offer any real health services, and are part of the ongoing push from the far right to seemingly care deeply about the unborn. Once they are born, of course, it is a different situation entirely, when they stop caring about the newly born and their moms when they are in need, but I digress… I’m pleased Senate Bill 190 will require honesty in advertising for such organizations. This is a very important protection for those women, often young and alone, who need the full range of options explained to them, to include abortion services if needed. If you must be fundamentally dishonest in your business practices, you shouldn’t be in business.

And speaking of deceptive business practices, let’s talk about Senate Bill 23-037, a new law that fixes a relatively minor point of dishonesty in the business world. Small injustices are still injustices. This new law requires anyone who collects a fee for providing a public record from, say, the secretary of state, to tell any prospective client the information they want is available for free from the state government. And it bans other deceptive practices from the “documents industry,” including any forms, fake deadlines or other texts that seem to imply the service being billed is from some official part of the government. You know those mailers, they look like they come from the government and imply that you need to send them money for a “service,” and now they will have to clearly indicate they are, well, phonies, though I doubt they will use that language.

The last new law I want to bring to your attention is all about privacy, and frankly, I’m a little amazed it took until 2023 to undo the previously existing law. Prior to House Bill 23-1031 being signed by Polis, certain mental health professionals were required by law to report patients with certain sexually transmitted diseases to various public health organizations. Though the intentions of such reporting requirements were likely honorable and aimed at reducing the spread of certain diseases, it is far past time for that requirement to be retired. Patients in need of mental health care might well avoid treatment entirely if they thought their most private medical information would be passed on to the Board of Health or other such organizations. That is not good for the patients or for our communities.

So, a look from above at the new laws created by the Democratically controlled state House and governor’s mansion clearly indicate the Dems have been hard at work protecting the privacy and rights of all Coloradans.

Contrast that to the GOP’s increasingly far-right, MAGA craziness, a point of view that seems to think the government should be small, but not so small that it can’t peek into your bedroom and go through your doctor’s medical records to make sure you are not doing something they think you shouldn’t be doing. Oh, and let’s make sure weapons of war are easily purchased.

Pity poor Florida. The governor of that state, Ron DeSantis, previously refused to commit to serving a full term as governor and is now clearly running for president. And he wants to do to the country what he is doing to Florida, where he just signed a new law that bans abortion after six weeks. Most women don’t even know they are pregnant at six weeks, so this is just a papered-over absolute ban, which is both dishonest and shameful. And in Missouri, Republicans have introduced legislation that would make it a crime for a woman to leave the state to get an abortion. Yes, they propose restricting an American’s right to travel wherever the heck they want to go. I’m guessing check points at the state border? Turning back any pregnant women that want to leave?

As I’ve often said, we in Colorado are fortunate to have our governor and our legislature. I do believe this tremendous overreach by the new GOP will eventually backfire, as their policies are wildly popular with their MAGA base but are deeply unpopular in the general public. And I keep hoping for at least one Republican leader of character who will forcefully stand up and remind the MAGA folks the GOP used to be for small government and was anti-Russia.

Sadly, I don’t see that leader on the horizon.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.